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Quinn on Asian Carp: "If You Can't Beat 'Em, You Eat 'Em"
Illinois is trying to make lemonade out of lemons when it comes to Asian carp.

The carp are big fish that jump into boats on the Illinois River, eat the native species and threaten the ecosystem of the Great Lakes, but Gov. Pat Quinn has a solution. "If you can't beat 'em, you eat 'em," he said today in a conference room at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where he and two businessmen signed a memorandum of understanding on a trade agreement.

The governor's office brokered the agreement between Big River Fisheries in Pearl and a fish purveyor in China to harvest the carp and ship them to China.

"This fish arrives very fresh in China, and our friends from China who've eaten it over there say it's very tasty and it's the best fish they've ever had," said Ross Harano, marketing director for Big River Fisheries. There are a number of fisheries along the Illinois and Mississippi rivers that deal in Asian carp, but Big Rover is the only exporter.

The expectation is that Big River will ship 30 million pounds of carp a year to China by the end of next year, paying local fishermen 10 to 15 cents a pound, and creating up to 180 jobs.

(Illinois Radio Network)
07 13 10 by Newsroom
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